But it is with men as with trees: if you lop off their finest branches, into which they were pouring their young life-juice, the wounds will be healed over with some rough boss, some odd excrescence; and what might have been a grand tree expanding into liberal shade, is but a whimsical misshapen trunk. The religious themes of the stories may not be of any great interest to the modern reader although I understand they were 'hot topics' in their day but the stories are mainly well-written. Already Eliot is showing an ability to create and describe life in a small industrial town and people it with an array of believable characters from the pauper in the workhouse to the country knight in the manor house. If you do not want us to use your data for our or third parties you will have the opportunity to withhold your consent to this when you provide your details to us on the form on which we collect your data.

Dolin, Tim (2005). George Eliot: Authors in Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.69. ISBN 9780192840479. Modest Tchaikovsky recalled that after first considering The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton (the first story in the trilogy) as an opera subject, the composer changed his mind in favour of Mr Gilfil's Love Story [2]. Herman Laroche also remembered that "During the current summer [of 1893], amongst other things, he had read a French translation of the Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot, for whose novels, beginning with The Mill on the Floss, he had an extremely strong affection during the last years of his life. Among the stories which make up this book was Mr Gilfil's Love Story, the action of which takes place in the eighteenth century, and whose pathos particularly captivated him. He found that this subject 'should be well-suited for writing an opera'" [3]. And, finally, the crowning glory is Janet’s Repentance, a story of reclamation and salvation and hope. This one brought me to tears, for I could not fail to feel Janet’s desperation and Mr. Tryan’s martyrdom at the hands of a society that purposely failed to appreciate or understand him. There is a sweetness and a sense of feeling that permeates this story that reminded me of why I loved The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch so much. There is moral instruction, without preaching, and there is example that is uplifting and yet ever human. Because Janet does not live up to his ideal as a wife, Robert frequently beats her. When Robert throws Janet out of the house in a drunken rage one night, she seeks refuge with a neighbor, who eventually calls Tryan. Tryan’s story of suffering emboldens Janet to live a life of self-sacrifice rather than self-despair. After Tryan dies, Janet, like many of Eliot’s heroines, undertakes a life of love, mercy, and service. Christian Themes

Eliot uses her characteristic empathy to look behind the “scenes of clerical life” portrayed in this volume. She tells three stories, connected in that they take place in and around the fictional English town of Milby and each concerns a certain Anglican clergyman whose religious views are under criticism. Dolin, Tim (2005). George Eliot: Authors in Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.67. ISBN 9780192840479. Hardy, Barbara. The Novels of George Eliot. London: Athlone Press, 1963. Hardy’s splendid critical work remains the best introduction to Eliot’s fiction.

Religious ideas have the fate of melodies, which, once set afloat in the world, are taken up by all sorts of instruments, some of them woefully coarse, feeble, or out of tune, until people are in danger of crying out that the melody itself is detestable.” Is there anything in Eliot’s writing relevant to today’s reader? If I were to describe my generation in broad terms, I would say that not many of us delve regularly into the Bible in search of enlightenment, yet we often still find ourselves drawn to church, especially as we reach parenting years. If this is a correct perception, then Eliot has a lot to say to us. Earnshaw, Steven (2000). The Pub in Literature: England's Altered State. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p.220. ISBN 9780719053054. Alas, alas! we poor mortals are often little better than wood-ashes—there is small sign of the sap, and the leafy freshness, and the bursting buds that were once there; but wherever we see wood-ashes, we know that all that early fullness of life must have been. I, at least, hardly ever look at a bent old man, or a wizened old woman, but I see also, with my mind's eye, that Past of which they are the shrunken remnant, and the unfinished romance of rosy cheeks and bright eyes seems sometimes of feeble interest and significance, compared with that drama of hope and love which has long ago reached its catastrophe, and left the poor soul, like a dim and dusty stage, with all its sweet garden-scenes and fair perspectives overturned and thrust out of sight." This collection of three stories, about the lives and work of clergymen in and near the small English town of Milby, was George Eliot’s first fictional work. As the Penguin Classics cover notes, it may seem odd that she chose church life for her stories, since she had broken with orthodox Christian belief some time earlier. After reading scholarly analyses of the Gospels, George Eliot had become convinced that they were essentially mythological stories. And, the introductory essay by David Lodge explains, this loss of belief led her to a stance of bold freethinking; she refused to attend church and for a time adopted a tone of confident secular scorn toward defenses of Christian faith.Why, he'll eat his head off, and yours too. How can you go on keeping a pig, and making nothing by him?'